Tour de France unveils 2026 route with double Alpe d’Huez for men and Ventoux debut for women

The 2026 men’s and women’s Tours de France will climax on two of the most famous climbs in world cycling, Alpe d’Huez and Mont Ventoux. The mountains will host key stages, with the Ventoux featuring in the Tour de France Femmes for the first time.A double stage finish to the ski station at Alpe d’Huez will provide the pivotal moment in the 113th running of the men’s race, whose route, along with the women’s event, was revealed in Paris on Thursday morning.The men’s Tour starts in Barcelona on 4 July with a rare team time trial over 19km and spends three days in north-east Spain before crossing the Pyrenees into France, with a first climbing finish to Les Angles.The threat of pro-Palestinian protests, which overshadowed this year’s Vuelta a Espana and forced the cancellation of the final stage, during the Grand Départ in Catalunya in July appear to have receded, for now

Australia beat India by two wickets in the second men’s one-day international – as it happened

That’s the series 2-0 to Australia, with one to play in Sydney on Saturday. They get the win, and it never really felt as close as the final margin suggests. At 132 for 4, maybe, when Carey fell, or 187 for 5 when it was Short getting out, those were the points when it might have been close. But Connolly settled things down after the Carey wicket, and Owen counterpunched so effectively after Short was out that he more or less finished the contest then and there. India had a slight chance at the end but not enough runs to play with

England win series after washout in final New Zealand T20 but Brook left frustrated

England’s T20 series against New Zealand ended as it had started, with a washout. On a previously dry day, the weather teased and taunted. Rain first intervened at 7.17pm, two minutes after the start of play. After a brief resumption it returned, paused, gave the ground staff a bit of time to mop up, allowed the umpires to schedule a 10pm restart and then fell once again at 9

New Zealand v England: final men’s T20 abandoned – as it didn’t happen

Harry Brook accepts the trophy, a big old handful of silver. He smiles the smile of a ten-year-old in the family photo at Christmas, and that is that. Thanks for your company and correspondence about everything from the weather to the Tims.Do join us for the ODI series between the same teams, which starts on Sunday at 1am in the UK, an hour before the clocks go back. Let’s hope it’s better than this

From monkey elixir to fentanyl: Tyler Skaggs’s death is merely a chapter in baseball’s 136-year drug fix

As the LA Angels stand trial over the pitcher’s death in the quiet shadow of the World Series fanfare across town, a sport confronts a truth practically as old as the game itselfBefore steroids, before amphetamines and before fentanyl, baseball’s first documented chemical dalliance came from monkey testicles. In August 1889, a worn-down pitcher for the Pittsburgh Alleghenys named James Francis “Pud” Galvin, so nicknamed for his once-devastating ability to reduce hitters to “pudding”, was in need of a spark. He was 32, his right arm a rubbery relic of nearly 5,000 innings pitched, his career on the fade. Then came salvation in a syringe. A French-Mauritian doctor by the name of Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard published a paper – The Effects Produced on Man by the Subcutaneous Injections of a Liquid Obtained from the Testicles of Animals – in which he claimed that a few drops of an extract sourced from dogs and guinea pigs might well make ordinary men stronger and more virile

The Ravens’ doomsday clock inches towards midnight. Will their season survive?

A few months ago Baltimore were seen as a Super Bowl contender; now they’re struggling to make the playoffs. We assess their chances of turning things aroundThe Ravens’ season is on the brink. Coming out of a bye week, Baltimore are 1-5 after a miserable start partly because their roster has been ripped apart by injuries. Next up are the Chicago Bears, who have come into some form. Beat the Bears, and the Ravens could turn the year around